We're all one...
I have finished many classes with the beautiful Namaste prayer:
"I honour the place in you in which the entire universe dwells.
I honour the place in you which is of love, of truth, of light, and of peace.
When you are in that place in you and I am in that place in me,
we are united, we are one.”
Even though I love the concept of 'oneness' and I have the concept explained to me by various people whom I respect a lot, like Alan Watts, Eckhart Tolle, Pema Chodron, and Joseph Campbell, I have to say in reality I still struggle with this concept on oneness for what it really means. I mean, I'm still me, I'm not a tree or a flower or my best friend or enemy. And even though I might not like other creatures being harmed, I don't really feel that it harms me personally... And so that's where I struggle with this 'oneness' idea...
And then today I had a moment of clarity, an insight that I'd like to share....
Let me start with explaining a bit more about what I mean with 'oneness'. It's the concept that we are all connected, not only as people but as an environment, and ultimately as an universe. Or as Alan Watts says "we don't arrive in this world, we all grown out of the universe as a leaf grows out of a tree". And yes this oneness concept also means that if someone (something) else suffers, I suffer...
Now in my life I have spent a lot of time to become 'me', to let go of comparisons, judgements, to believe in myself, to be true to myself. For me this aim of becoming an individual, seperate from what society wants me to be, conflicts with this 'oneness' principle. After all if we're all one shouldn't my aim be to let go of my 'me'? Shouldn't I aim to be selfless instead?
Today I found a metaphor which actually 'turned on the light' for me and which I'd like to share. Imagine the universe to be your body. Our body consists of many, many different parts, some big, some small, however we need all parts of our body to live a healthy life, or even to exist. Now imagine your organs to have consciousness...
Your heart has a strong case for it's importance, clearly we wouldn't be alive without it, and it has appointed itself the king of your body. It has made it's friend the lungs it's Prime Minister. They have ruled the body for many years, however, being self absorbed by their importance and fortune, they neglected to notice that in a war between the red and the white blood cells (about who was more important of course ;-)) the amount of red blood cells has diminished to the extend that not enough oxygen can be carried through the body. The king, your heart, can pump all it wants but your body will not sustain...
The interdependence in our body is clear and even the cell or bacteria that is only there for 1 day has an important role to play. Nothing is more, or less, important. The heart, the lungs, the blood cells, they ARE your body, and without the body they would not exist...
In this way I can understand that 'we are all one', not in that we are the same but in the fact that we are all related and connected and that together we ARE this universe. So be the best you can be at what you're here for. Understand that you are not only your body but your relationships as well. It is not about the importance of the individual - the mountain which has been here 500 million years, is as important as the 40 year old human, as is the 3 second old snow flake - it is about how we work together to sustain ourself, the universe.
